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Ventilation In Your Chicken Coop – Why Is It Important & How To Provide It

Many chicken keepers tend to forget the importance of ventilation in their coop and they build their coop without leaving room for it.

Ventilation is important both for the summer and the winter for your chickens.

Forgetting to add ventilation in your chicken coop plans may lead to some problems later in your time as a chicken keeper. This is what inspired us at the typesofchicken.com team to prepare this article for our readers.

Why Is Proper Ventilation Important for your chicken coop?

Chickens provide a lot of moisture, and moisture leads to bacteria stacking up and bacteria stacking up leads to diseases in your flock.

Ventilation removes moisture from the coop.

As we said before chickens provide seriously large amounts of water vapor when they breathe and when they poo.

Chickens process a lot of water and that is why proper hydration is important.

A lot of water makes the air in the humid.

Proper ventilation removes the bad smell out of the coop and that can be very helpful if you want to keep happy and healthy chickens and it will make going out to the coop easier.

When Is Proper Ventilation Needed?

Proper ventilation is always needed in your coop, even in winter – if you are afraid that your chickens may be cold with a few more windows in the coop you can build the kind of windows that you can close and open as needed.

Maybe not as much as they need fresh water but still chickens need fresh air also in order to provide eggs and meat with more quality and safer to eat.

What Kind Of Ventilation Systems Are There?

  • Active (or mechanical)
    Active ventilation means using a fan or other electrical devices in order to provide air circulation in your coop. Honestly, we at the typesofchicken.com team don`t like this method of ventilation because using electricity increases the risk in your coop even if it is properly isolated.
  • Passive
  • Passive ventilation means that the air circulates through window openings and without any help from electrical devices. Wind provides passive ventilation in the coop and this one is also the safest method for most chicken keepers.
Ventilation In Your Chicken Coop - Why Is It Important & How To Provide It? Ventilation is important both for the summer and the winter for your chickens.
via Flickr
  • Turbine
    In the turbine ventilation method the wind also plays a crucial part. What makes the turbine ventilation method different from the passive method is that along with the window openings chicken keepers use wind turbines from the coop. This is recommended for those chicken keepers that live in windy and stormy areas.

What About Weather Conditions?

This part depends totally on the chicken keeper and how much they know their chickens but still, we will try to explain it the best we can.

Winter

Look at your chickens, if they indicate that they are cold by getting close to each other or to the heat source you have provided for them during the winter it is a good idea that you close some of the windows or just lower the amount of air circulation in your coop in whatever way you use to control it.

Summer

Open all of the windows and provide as much as air circulation as possible, watch the behavior of your chickens and if they indicate that they are stressed from the heat by bullying each other and making unpleasant noises it is a good idea that you provide some extra ventilation in your coop.

Ventilation In Your Chicken Coop - Why Is It Important & How To Provide It? Ventilation is important both for the summer and the winter for your chickens.
via Flickr

What do you use for ventilation in your chicken coop?

Share your thoughts and opinions with us in the comments below or via e-mail support@typesofchicken.com

Ventilation In Your Chicken Coop - Why Is It Important & How To Provide It? Ventilation is important both for the summer and the winter for your chickens.
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4 thoughts on “Ventilation In Your Chicken Coop – Why Is It Important & How To Provide It”

  1. We live in central Illinois & the winters are usually 30 to -30 degrees with a wind chill. I’m really confused on how to provide ventilation during this time. We have windows but seems w them cracked it would provide a draft. Would we put a vent like a bathroom vent(fan) in the roof to get ventilation? Any help is very appreciated!

    Reply
    • Providing proper ventilation during winter in central Illinois can be a challenge, especially when temperatures can be very cold. One option you could consider is installing a ventilation fan in the roof, similar to a bathroom exhaust fan. This would allow you to ventilate your home without having to open windows and risk creating drafts and heat loss.

      When selecting a ventilation fan, make sure to choose a model that is designed for use in cold climates and can withstand the low temperatures without freezing or malfunctioning. You may also want to consider using a timer or thermostat to control the fan so that it only runs when needed.

      Another option to consider is a heat recovery ventilation (HRV) system. An HRV system works by exchanging stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air while also recovering heat from the outgoing air to warm up the incoming air. This can help to maintain good indoor air quality while minimizing heat loss.

      Ultimately, the best ventilation solution for your home will depend on your specific needs and preferences. It may be helpful to consult with a heating and ventilation professional in your area to help determine the best option for your home.

      Reply

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